Report: 4 in 5 Americans at risk of poverty, joblessness, reliance on welfare

posted by Caroline May
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3 years ago

Four in five adults in America have dealt with unemployment, risked falling into poverty or relied on welfare for portions of their life, The Associated Press reports.

As President Obama pivots to discussions about the economy, the AP’s report offers a dreary picture of the current personal economy many in America experience.

The AP reports that the struggle is largely due to globalization, the widening gap between the rich and poor and the declining availability of good-paying manufacturing jobs.

The findings include an increase in economic insecurity — or a period of joblessness, reliance on welfare for a year or income below 150 percent of the poverty line — among whites, narrowing the racial disparity between whites and minorities when it comes to the likelihood of ending up in poverty, with 76 percent of white adults experiencing economic insecurity by the time they reach the age of 60.

Further, while the poverty rate for blacks and Hispanics are three times that of whites, by straight numbers, with 19 million whites in poverty, whites make up more than 41 percent of the population in poverty — nearly twice the number of black Americans in poverty, the AP reports.